Technology-adjusted carbon accounting

We present technology-adjusted consumption-based accounting (TCBA) – a measure of shared responsibility for global greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike in conventional consumption-based accounting (CBA), countries are assigned the emission responsibility for the technology they use to produce their exports. This ensures that national emission responsibilities are not driven by differences in export production technology. If the technology for exports is less (more) carbon-intensive than world average for the relevant product group, the exporters are credited (penalized) for providing the world with these goods. By comparing the evidence on TCBA trends to conventional findings on CBA and production-based accounting (PBA) for the period 2000–2014, the map of emission responsibility is redrawn – albeit not in a way that systematically favors developed or developing countries. Lastly, we discuss how TCBA has been received in academia and among policy makers since its conceptualization.